Monday, January 24, 2011

Rick Warren Introduces "The Devil Plan"

The following article was so thoroughly researched I decided to print it in its entirety word-for-word, knowing that Marsha and I capture different audiences. So thanks to my friend Marsha West for letting me reprint this article and for all her hard work.

Pastor Rick Warren continues to work at "fulfilling people's needs." His latest endeavor is "The Daniel Plan," a 52-week health and fitness program. Pastor Rick has decided it's high time to lose 90 pounds. But there's more to his health plan than meets the eye.

"The church says all of its more than 5,000 small groups will go through "The Daniel Plan," which is part of Saddleback's "Decade of Destiny," a 10-year plan launching this month "to help individuals succeed and be who God designed them to be in every aspect in life."" (Online source)

On January 15, over 6,000 people flocked to Saddleback's main campus while thousands more watched online at the other Saddleback campuses.

It would appear that Pastor Warren has good intentions and that he genuinely wants his congregants to be the picture of health. He says that Christians should honor God with our bodies and he draws from Scripture to prove his point, 1 Cor. 6:19 and Rom. 12:1, for example. Who can possibly dispute that Warren's plan to get the sheep shipshape is anything but admirable?

RECIPE FOR A WITCH'S BREW

Into a cauldron of green tea add in 1 eye of a knut, 4 lizard's tails, 3 dragon incisors, 4 forked tongues, 7 pages from the Message Bible, 1 page from the KJV Bible, then stir the pot while chanting "I am God...I am God...I am God." While the brew simmers get in a crossed-legged yoga position...meditate ...go deep...deeper still...until you're in a trance, then allow the kundalini energy coiled like a serpent at the base of the spine to run through your body...until an ecstatic experience erupts whereby you will shift between ecstasy and horror......voila, enlightenment!

In his new endeavor to help Saddleback congregants get healthy, Pastor Rick has enticed unsuspecting people, many of them professing Christians, into drinking his witch's brew.

Many of you are thinking, "Rick Warren wouldn't do that!" Oh really? Stay with me and you'll discover what "America's Pastor" is up to. Many of you will find what I'm about to reveal unbelievable. Don't take my word for it. At the end of this article I have included a number of links that reveal the truth about this man. Do the research.AMEN, HYMAN AND OZ

When Rick Warren decided to implement his health plan he enlisted the help of three doctors: Daniel Amen, Mark Hyman and Mehmet Oz. "I am honored to be partnering with these internationally distinguished health experts," he boasted. Soon the fearsome foursome set out to develop a plan and what they came up with was "The Daniel Plan" (TDP). Amen, Hyman and Oz applied their medical expertise and Warren offered his expertise in spiritual matters. And herein lies the problem. As you will see, Amen, Hyman and Oz also have a great deal to offer in "spiritual" matters.

DR. MEHMET OZ

"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths." — 2 Tim. 4:3-4

Oprah Winfrey's "favorite doctor" is a Muslim and has been influenced by the mysticism of Sufi Muslims. Moreover, he is keen on the ideas of cultist mystic Emanuel Swedenborg:

"As I came into contact with Swedenborg's many writing I began to understand Swedenborg's profound insights and how they applied directly to my life."

Swedenborg believed he could pass between the life to come and the present. What is more he claimed he had conversations with spirits of the dearly departed as well as angelic beings:

"[T]he spirit world was comprised of a number of concentric spheres, each with its own density and inhabitants. There is no such thing as hell or eternal punishment. Those spirits who find themselves in a hellish place after death can evolve toward a higher spiritual plane.

"In spite of it being granted to him 'to be constantly and uninterruptedly in company with spirits and angels,' Swedenborg did issue a caution in regard to receiving counsel from just any spirit that might manifest with an alleged personal message. "When spirits begin to speak," he wrote in Miscellaneous Theological Works (1996), "care should be taken not to believe them, for nearly everything they say is made up by them....They love to feign. Whatever be the topic spoken of, they think they know it, and if man listens and believes, they insist, and in various ways deceive and seduce." (Online source)

Dr. Oz is a practitioner of Transcendental Meditation:

"When I meditate, I go to that place where truth lives. I can see what reality really is, and it is so much easier to form good relationships then."

Do a Google search on Dr. Oz and you'll find posts from people complaining that he's irresponsible because he promotes things which have no scientific evidence to support them. Until something is proven, doctors should not promote it as it could endanger lives. One example of an unscientific practice he promotes is Reiki, which New Agers believe to be a "guided Universal Life Force Energy." Dr. Oz's wife is a Reiki Master. "Reiki," he said, "is my favorite treatment that could change the future of medicine forever." He also pontificated:

"I think [Reiki] may be ultimately the most important alternative medicine treatment of all. And we are embarking on this whole new vista of opportunities, it broadens dramatically the spectrum of where we might be able to go in our bodies, and this is the area of energy medicine."(Online source)

It is rather curious that Rick Warren would team up with a man whose fame he owes in part to New Age High Priestess Oprah Winfrey. Dr. Oz's worldview more closely aligns to New Age Spirituality than to historic orthodox Christianity.

DR. DANIEL AMEN

"Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ." — Col. 2:8

Dr. Amen is a child and adult psychiatrist and Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at the University of California at Irvine School of Medicine. In addition he is a brain imaging specialist.

Dr. Amen teaches "techniques that will improve 'brain health,' claiming that poor brain health is associated with a host of problems from overeating to depression. ... He includes meditation (and in fact this is his primary tool) as a way to have a healthy brain."

Dr. Amen recommends a meditation called Kriya Kirtan which is from the Kundalini tradition:

"I teamed with Drs. Dharma Singh Khalsa and Nisha Money to study the impact of meditation on the brain. We chose a simple 12 minute form of meditation, Kriya Kirtan, that is easy for busy people to practice. It is based on the five primal sounds: Saa, Taa, Naa, Maa (aa being the fifth sound). Meditators [sic]say each sound as they consecutively touch their thumb to fingers two, three, four and five. The sounds and fingering are repeated for two minutes out loud, two minutes whispering, four minutes silently, two minutes whispering and two minutes out loud." (Online source)

Dr. Amen is also a practitioner of Tantric or tantric sex which is the use of Hinduistic-type mysticism during sexual intercourse. Lighthouse Trails Research (LTR) reports:

"In a 6-CD set called Create a More Passionate Night, Dr. Amen has teamed up with advanced certified Tantra educator, T. J. Bartel. ... Tantra is the name of the ancient Hindu sacred texts that contain certain rituals and secrets. Some deal with taking the energies brought forth in meditation through the chakras and combining them with love-making to enhance sexual experiences."

"Make no mistake about it" says LTR, "Reiki, meditation, tantric sex — these are very powerful mystical experiences that have the capability to delude and deceive those who are involved with it."

For Christians who have read to this point, I hope you're becoming alarmed.

DR. MARK HYMAN

"For Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light." — 2 Cor. 11:14

Dr. Mark Hyman is editor-in-chief of Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine which is said to be "the most prestigious journal in the field of integrative medicine, and the medical editor of Alternative Medicine, the Art and Science of Healthy Living."

"It is called alternative because the technique/ drug/ herb has not been or cannot be adequately tested, or has been found ineffective or dangerous. If it were a safe, tested treatment, it would not be in the alternative category. Many cited studies to support these methods are flawed, short-term, based on anecdotal evidence, conducted by believers in the techniques, & often are not published in a peer-reviewed medical journal. The terms complementary, blended, and integrated are now being used as well since alternative treatments are being combined with traditional medicine. This makes it more difficult to test the alternative methods or to know what is really working when the patient improves. It should be remembered that the placebo effect accounts for 30% or more for a person feeling better."

Dr. Hyman claims he's not into meditation but he does recommend yoga to create calm.

"Christian apologists John Ankerberg and John Weldon maintain that, 'The basic premise of yoga theory is the fundamental unity of all existence: God, man, and all of creation are ultimately one divine reality.' To explain the basic premise, the authors quote from an editorial in the Yoga Journal: "We are all aware that yoga means 'union' and that the practice of yoga unites body, breath, and mind, lower and higher energy centers and, ultimately self and God, or higher Self. But more broadly, yoga directs our attention to the unity or oneness that underlies our fragmented experiences and equally fragmented world. Family, friends, the Druze guerrilla in Lebanon, the great whale migrating north — all share the same essential [divine] nature.""

Dr. Hyman participated in a program called Yoga, Body & Spirit at Shambhala Mountain. The program included Susan Piver, who offered instruction in the ancient wisdom tradition of Buddhist meditation, and Richard Reoch who presented Golden Ball Chi Kung.

Dr. Hyman retails expensive supplements "critical for supporting lifelong health," books and CDs in his "healthy living store" online. The UltraWellness Essentials Kit for Women costs $130 for a one month supply. For youngsters it's a tad less. Only $47 per month because "Like adults, children need a purified source of essential fatty acids to help build healthy brain cells, support focus and attention, and optimize metabolism."

Why has this not dawned on Pastor Rick? In one of his promotional videos he held up each of the doctors' books and urged his congregants to purchase them! This makes one wonder if Dr. Hyman's books recommend the high priced vitamins, and if this is the case who derives benefit from the sale of these products?

That an evangelical pastor would allow his sheep to be influenced by New Age ideas and questionable medical practices should give us pause. Christians should avoid becoming involved in any sort of assembly where we are powerless to address issues that come up which could cause us to compromise our biblical principles. Moreover, it should give us pause when the minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ teams up with occultists!

RICK WARREN'S 'PLAN' TO CHANGE THE WORLD

Writer Jennifer Pekich journeyed to "The Daniel Plan" conference at Saddleback Church as an observer and blogged about her experience:

"To begin, I'd like to state that Saturday Jan. 15th, 2011 will go down in the history books as the day Saddleback Church was sold a bill of goods. The masses had come out in droves for answers to their weight loss difficulties & health problems, but unbeknownst to them, they were being given a prescription for restructuring society & population control.

"The prescription goes by the name Agenda 21, a.k.a. "Sustainable Development" or "Smart Growth." Agenda 21 is a published document put out by the United Nations with the intent to put limits on population and to restructure nation-states into a global society. Rick Warren's "new friends" had dubbed it, "The Daniel Plan — God's Prescription For Your Health." A more appropriate title would've been, "Sustainable Living — Destroying Inalienable Rights, One Community at a Time."

(For those who are unfamiliar with Sustainable Development, Tom DeWeese explains, "Nature has an integral set of different values (cultural, spiritual and material) where humans are one strand in nature's web and all living creatures are considered equal. Therefore the natural way is the right and human activities should be molded along nature's rhythms.")

Jennifer continues...

"I about fell off my chair when Dr. Hyman stated, "The key to the success of the "Daniel Plan" is "group living"..."individuals" will not succeed, our only hope lies in "community." And with that, it was announced that the "Saddleback community" would be an example of "sustainable living" and would set the course to "change this world"...and the crowd went wild! I have to admit that visions of the masses being manipulated by Adolf Hitler's oratory skills came to my mind, only this particular crowd had just been manipulated by a really bad infomercial."

Most Christians know that our only hope lies in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our only hope does not lie in sustainable living designed to keep American citizens under a microscope and under the thumb of BIG government. America will not succeed because of BIG government; it is falling apart at the seams because of BIG government! Americans who are looking to the nanny state to cure their ills only need to take a gander at the European Union to the see the destruction BIG governments have caused — and it continues to get worse every day.

But this is not about moving America into Eastern-style socialism — as it appears some so-called evangelical pastors would like to see happen — so I'll move on.

More from Jennifer...

"Dr. Hyman said that he is a Jew, Dr. Amen said he is a Christian, and Dr. Oz said he is a Muslim. And doesn't that represent the demographic of "most of the population of the world"? But then he said, "we're all the same underneath." True to his salesman fashion, Dr. Hyman didn't define his terms. What in the world does he mean "we're all the same underneath"? That can mean a number of things. Since he was speaking to a religious crowd, I'd venture to say some of the folks present took that to mean we're all children of God (Jews, Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, etc.), which is patently false according to the Bible. The Bible says there are only two groups, children of wrath and children of God. You're either one or the other, a believer in Christ Jesus, or a non-believer. We aren't "all the same underneath." (Ephesians Ch. 2).

"The tragic thing about this day at Saddleback is, Jesus was never mentioned ... and I mean NEVER There were a few passing references to God; Daniel Amen mentioned that our bodies were "a temple of the Holy Spirit and the brain is the inner sanctum" [Amen means that all humans are the temple of the Holy Spirit], but Jesus never made the cut — "sustainable lifestyles" and "group living" did."(To read Jennifer's entire report visit Ponderings from Patmos )

There is nothing wrong with wanting to feel better, look better, be stronger and think sharper. The problem lies with the witch's brew cooked up by Rick Warren and his team of doctors. As I've demonstrated, doctors Amen, Hyman and Oz are steeped in Eastern mysticism and the occult. A large number of Christians trust Rick Warren and will purchase their books — and a lot of them will be influenced by a worldview that is incompatible with Christianity, namely New Age Spirituality. Again, more than 5,000 small groups will go through TDP. God help them!

I'll close with Galatians 1:6-8:

"I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed."